A Trip to Australia and New Zealand
Christchurch - Cathedral Square
The Christchurch Cathedral in Christchurch is located in an enormous open area in the heart of the city known as Cathedral Square. The corner stone was laid in 1864 and the building was completed in 1904. It is the cathedral seat for the Bishop of Christchurch. The cathedral was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, a well known British architect of the time who was very well connected with the royal family. (He designed the Albert Memorial for Queen Victoria and is buried in Westminster Abby.)
In 1848, in London, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, John Robert Godley and the Archbishop of Canterbury formed the Canterbury Association. This organization bought land from the New Zealand Company for a nominal sum and sold it to immigrants for a larger sum. The profit was to be used to help poor immigrants with skill sets that the new community needed and to provide for community development. In December 1850, four ships arrived with the first of about 3,500 settlers who eventually participated in the program. These became known as the "first four ships" and the passengers on them became the "Canterbury Pilgrims." A very young aspiring architect, Benjamin Mountforth, arrived on one of the first four ships.
Following his arrival in New Zealand, Mountforth's architectural career had a rocky start, but he persevered to become one of the most important New Zealand architects of the nineteenth century. Mountforth was eventually selected to be the supervisory architect working from Gilbert's plans on the actual construction site of the Christchurch Cathedral. He is credited with having introduced the Gothic revival style to his community and was responsible for much of Christchurch's unique architecture.
